TYPOGRAPHY - PROJECT 1

on

03/05/19 - 17/05/19 (Week 5-Week 7)
Piyaphon Inthavong (0337589)
Typography
Project 1

LECTURE NOTES

Lecture 5:
May 3rd, 2019 

 In this lecture, we learned the basics of InDesign, starting from the document setup, to commands, formatting and few tips and tricks.

InDesign additional document setup includes the margin, bleed, and slug when opened a new document. These features are precisely set up by book designers to prevent the problem of printer miss interpretation as much as possible.

It is faster to work within Adobe applications when shortcuts are brought to use, important shortcuts for InDesign when working with type includes:
Ctrl + Alt + I = Show hidden characters
Ctrl + ; = Show grid lines
Alt + Left/Right arrows = adjust leading
Alt + Up/Down arrows = adjust line spacing
Shift + Enter = line break

 Mr. Vinod then taught us the essential formatting rules in typography. There must be only one paragraph space in a type composition, do line breaks instead of paragraph breaks as they are meant for different purposes.

Lecture 6:
May 10th, 2019

 Mr. Vinod taught us a few more rules for InDesign in this lecture. We learned that the default font setting is size 12 and leading 4.

 Aligning text correctly is another important rule to imply in Typography, left align should be used when a series of paragraphs are present, this is because human eyes often read text from left to right. Right alignment is a must-not for body text as it starts from an irregular point. Center alignment is only used for a certain situation to emphasize a heading or important details such as in most invitation cards' heading to create an hourglass shape design.

 Week 7: 
May 17th, 2019

 Good typography designs have a subliminal effect, it does not attract way too much attention, so if the type is seen before the words, the type should be changed.

 The goal in Typography is to allow for easy and prolonged reading. Type size should be set just large enough for audiences to read easily, leading must be set at an optimal point (current font size + 3 pt.) to prevent uncomfortable or tight spacing which creates a vertical movement to the readers hence making them feel out of place.

 Textures and colors are present in typography, not in the same way styling languages work but as another element of design, the bigger the stroke the darker the color, the same goes to X-height, the bigger it is, the darker the color.

INSTRUCTIONS

EXERCISES

Week 5:
May 3rd, 2019
Figure 5.1. First few sketches on the article cover.
 
Figure 5.2. Continued sketches of the First Things First article cover.

 Week 6:
May 10th, 2019
Figure 6.1. Full draft of ideas drawn in Adobe Illustrator.
Figure 6.3. The chosen design for the First Things First. The arrow shows the direction towards the "new way" of talent usage on design. The mirrored text of "First things" represents new ways to see things differently.
Figure 6.4. Arrow turned into outlines to lessen the visual weight of it. This is the final cover of the First Things First Manifesto 2000.
Week 7: 
May 17th, 2019
Figure 7.1. Preview boxes colored in different values to check on the overall layout composition.
Figure 7.2. The final outcome of project 1. Both the title and subtitle was moved up so that they make connection to and aligns with the second page.

Project 1 final work:

FEEDBACK

Week 5: May 3rd, 2019

 Varieties of ideas were sketched out and shown to Mr. Vinod. He responded with the idea that the designs not being meaningful enough, he advised me to reread and understand the article first before drawing out plans. Most of my drafts were all right, however, it does not meet the objectives.

Week 6: May 10th, 2019

Most of the ideas were discarded as they lack meaning to the context. Mr. Vinod approved one of the ideas and gave suggestions on ways to improve the design. Firstly, he thought the dark value of the arrow was a bit too strong, so he suggested to turn it into an outline, which greatly helps to balance the visual weight of the composition. Mr. Vinod also strongly suggested me to finalize everything on In Design as the formatting is more proper. The usage of sans serif and serif should be utilized wisely; Another advice was to replace paragraph typeface with sans serif, change alignment to left and not to use justify.

 Week 7: May 17th, 2019

 The cover of project 1 isn't aligned to the text, Mr. Vinod suggested repositioning the layout of the title and the subtitle because of the unbalanced composition as the text looks too pushed down. The sketches for project 2 is acceptable however, few mistakes were pointed out as the contrast of the letters are not consistent especially to letter M and V. The letter A needs major improvement.

REFLECTION

Experiences

Week 5: In-Design is new to me, almost my first time of use. The article "First Things First" Mr. Vinod introduced to us was surprisingly similar to the "Essay on Typography" book I read, so things were easier to understand and relate with during the lecture.

Week 6: It's surprising how much stories and meanings a single layout can tell. Even to the most obvious things like a book cover must be thoughtfully planned and designed with core purposes.

Week 7: To perfectly align text boxes and carefully place objects in an equally separated spacing is essential to all designers. Knowing how to balance the components is important as Mr. Vinod keep repeating it throughout the critique sessions.

Observation

Week 5: Expressing a book/magazine cover according to its own subject matter seemed simple, but my draft were all rejected by Mr. Vinod. The meaning in the designs was absent. Time was also spent carelessly on the sketches alone.

Week 6: I tried importing vectors from Adobe Illustrator to InDesign and later realise that it's no longer customisable. This results in a redo of work for the cover design.

Week 7: Justification and Hyphenation was used for the paragraphs of my content page to create an even look for the text boxes so that no words flow out of the text boxes. I thought this would make the composition look more balanced, but finally came to realise that it is a false method.

Findings

Week 5: Spend time more efficiently, plan more carefully, sketch faster. Drafts are meant for previewing purposes only, there is no need to spend too many time on shading, straightening the lines, or drawing the fonts nicely because in the end there are only ideas.

Week 6: It's safer to understand the essential mechanics of the software instead of assuming false information beyond what the software can offer. Perhaps try importing simple vector from Illustrator into InDesign first before assuming that it's possible.

Week 7: Justification in wrong situation can become uneasy to the eyes as it creates "Rivers" in the paragraphs which is the uneven spacing of the text.

FURTHER READING

 
White space is not your enemy- by Kim Golombisky & Rebecca Hagen

White space is not your enemy is a practical layout guide book which teaches the essential rules and concepts on making an adequate design ranging from screen preview to printing.

 Importance
Designing makes a great impact onto the visual culture, whether its traditional art, media, cultural studies or even philosophy. "To a great degree, designers engineer visual culture." People are easy to fall under the influence of decisions made my designers and artists, this is where the style trends occur and go.

 Research
Always start with a research, it is necessary to identify the main objective of the project, then the audience, it's important to know who the designs are meant for, the exact format the design is made for, time and budget.

 Brainstorm
The 3 brainstorming processes are according to the following:

 1. Dump - Act dump, begin at zero, write all that is needed on a piece of paper, write a list, plan diagrams, draw a mind map, do anything that's needed, don't go straight into the small details right away.
2. Percolate - Do something else, let the ideas simmer while we do different things.
3. Morph - This is the part where we go back to work and think oxymoron, reject anything that is obvious, this includes first or "favorite ideas."

 Layout sins
1. Things That Blink Incessantly - Keep animated repetition to a minimum.
2. Warped Photos - Keep photographs proportionate, hold shift when resizing photos.
3. Naked Photos - Avoid awkward space by adding hairline rules to border photos that have ambiguous edges.
4. Bulky Borders & Boxes - Do not always rely on boxes or borders to separate things, use negative space to group or separate them.
5. Cheated Margins- Be generous with margins, including inset and offset for text and picture boxes.
6. Centering Everything - Avoid centered layouts.
7. 4 Corners & Clutter - Avoid clutters, do clumping.
8. Trapped Negative Space - Don't place 2 objects too far from each other as it creates the unnecessary negative space that is ugly to the eyes.
9. Busy Backgrounds - Design backgrounds as negative space.
10. Tacky Type Emphasis - Think twice about reversing, stroking, using all caps or underlining.
11. Bad Bullets - Use real bullets for lists, and use hanging indents to properly align lists.
12. Widows and Orphans - Avoid inelegant breaks at the bottoms and tops of legs of type.
13. Rivers - Avoid unnecessary Justification which creates negative space flowing through legs of justified type.